Bapepam urged to probe Bank Mashill case
JAKARTA (JP): Several analysts have urged the Capital Market Supervisory Agency (Bapepam) and the management of the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) to investigate a controversial "takeover" plan of Bank Mashill.
The plan emerged two weeks ago, when Amir Gunawan, a businessman from Singapore, said he had bought a 17 percent stake in the Bank.
He also said that he planned to purchase another 16 percent stake owned by a consortium of four business people -- Tito Sulistio (an executive of Citra Marga), Jopie Wijaya (Steady Safe), Hary Tanoesoedibyo (Bhakti Investama) and Titik Probowo (Pentasena).
Tito's consortium bought 16 percent of Mashill shares on April 9 at Rp 1,850 each.
"I think the JSX's management and the Capital Market Supervisory Agency (Bapepam) should take action immediately for the sake of fairness and investors' confidence on market surveillance," a lawyer at a legal consultantancy registered at Bapepam told The Jakarta Post.
By having a 35 percent stake in Bank Mashill, Gunawan would be able to propose changes in the bank's management in the forthcoming annual shareholders meeting.
Market players have speculated that Gunawan and the consortium might have plans to take control of the bank. But the bank's founder, the Kartawidjaja family, declared that they still owned a 51 percent stake in the bank.
The lawyer, who asked not to be named, said that although it is difficult for Bapepam to prove any violation, the agency has the power to take action if it finds a strong indication that the two investors intend to wrest control of the bank.
Bapepam's regulations only stipulate that any party who wants to buy a 25 percent stake of a public company, or at least 20 percent with the intention of controlling the company, can only do so through tender-offer procedures.
"It was Bapepam which made such a regulation and it's only Bapepam which can punish the errant players," he said.
He said that Bapepam or the JSX's management should investigate the legality of the company owned by Gunawan, (Casclemere Enterprises Ltd.) which was mentioned as the new shareholder of Bank Mashill because investors are not familiar with Gunawan's name.
"I don't have strong evidence to prove that a group of investors are planning a "hostile takeover" of Bank Mashill, but I have seen strong takeover indications," noted economist Sjahrir, told the Post yesterday.
"I hesitate to believe that the new investors are committed to the performance of the bank and I'm also afraid that their major concern is only gains," Sjahrir added.
"As a market player, I would say that some people might have become jealous to see that other parties had already bought Bank Mashill's shares because the shares now offer billions of rupiah in gains," a director of a local securities company, who preferred anonymity, told the Post.
He said that to some extent the transactions made by Tito's group and Gunawan were fair.
"But their recent move has created uncertainty on what is considered fair transactions. Moreover, with their present positions (Tito is a commissioner of the Surabaya Stock Exchange and Titik Prabowo is a commissioner of the JSX) they have to be more prudent," he added.
Bapepam said that it has urged JSX managers to check everything related to the Bank Mashill case.
"For the time being, we cannot claim that the move of any parties to control Bank Mashill is against the regulations. We need to collect more data," a bureau chief at Bapepam, Agus Muhamad, was quoted by Antara as saying.
Bapepam said in a statement that it is now investigating if the new investors of Bank Mashill have violated tender-offer and other rules on market manipulation. (alo)